Untranslatable German Words: Die Gesichtsbremse Posted by Constanze on Jan 21, 2015
I know you all love learning about German’s ‘untranslatable’ words, so here’s another – the first one of 2015, in fact! Today’s untranslatable German word is Die Gesichtsbremse. What is the literal translation of Gesichtsbremse? The word is made up of Das Gesicht (face) and Die Bremse (brake). So, it literally means ‘face…
Silvester in Berlin Posted by Sten on Jan 20, 2015
On the 31st of December, I made a quick decision with my brothers – let’s go to Berlin, to celebrate NYE there! The capital has one of the largest open air, free entrance NYE events of the world, the so-called Silvesterparty am Brandenburger Tor. It stretches from the Brandenburger Tor all the way to the…
Useful Vocabulary for Everyday Life in Germany Posted by Larissa on Jan 19, 2015
Ein gutes neues Jahr! This post is for the German students of Lindin High School from the USA and their teacher Herr Pac. When I was learning German at school we learnt a lot about German Politik (politics), Geschichte (history) and the Umwelt (environment). Although we could speak a lot about those particular subjects they…
New Year’s Resolutions: Health and Fitness Vocabulary Posted by Constanze on Jan 15, 2015
Guten Tag, ihr Lieben! This is a follow-up to my post, How To Talk About New Year’s Resolutions In German, and focuses on something I am very passionate about – health and fitness. What has health and fitness got to do with New Year’s Resolutions, and learning German? These statistics from presseportal.de will explain! According…
R.I.P. Udo Jürgens Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 9, 2015
Just before Christmas the Austrian entertainer Udo Jürgens died. The online edition of the Abendzeitung München reports that memorials will take place in Zurich, Berlin, and Vienna mid-January. 21 December 2014 was a sad day for many Austrian, Swiss, and Germans. Udo Jürgens, one of the most popular germanophone musicians, collapsed while taking a walk in this adopted homeland…
How To Talk About New Year’s Resolutions in German Posted by Constanze on Jan 8, 2015
Sonne, Mond und Sterne, alles liegt in weiter Ferne, doch das Gute das ist ganz nah – ein glückliches und schönes neues Jahr! Happy new year! This is one of many New Year’s greetings in German, which translated into English goes something like this (please note that this is my own translation – not an…
Der Nikolaus Kommt Posted by Larissa on Dec 22, 2014
At the beginning of December, I was informed that on the 5th of December Nikolaus (St Nicholas) would come in the night and fill children’s shoes with presents. This tradition is carried out in parts of Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy and Switzerland amongst others. To me this sounded a lot like Christmas, and it is…